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Join Date

Jul 2008

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Somewhere On the Darkside...

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4,388

Bouchette: Steelers pushed Scottie Montgomery out

Posted by Mike Florio on February 11, 2013, 5:34 PM EST
Last year, the Steelers didn’t want to create the impression that they pushed offensive coordinator Bruce Arians out of town. Even though they did.

This year, the Steelers possibly want to create the impression that they pushed receivers coach Scottie Montgomery out of town. Even if they didn’t.

Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette believes, without specifically reporting, that [URL="http://sulia.com/channel/pittsburgh-steelers/f/5acd817b-d5a1-4264-af1c-b22d724507ad/?source=twitter"]Montgomery was nudged[/URL]. And that potentially becomes important because, with multiple offensive assistants leaving the team after offensive coordinator Todd Haley’s first year on the job, the Steelers surely hope to avoid creating the impression that Haley’s style has caused folks to give up assignments with the Pittsburgh Steelers for jobs at college football powerhouses like UTEP and Duke.We’re not saying that the coaches left because of Haley. We’re just saying that, based on what happened last year with Arians, there’s absolutely no reason to believe any whispers or declarations coming from the Steelers on why a coach left.

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All I know is I work with a guy whose kid played at NA with Kuglers kid, and he heard Kugler took the UTEP job because he could not stand Haley.

Maybe he didn't like Haley was holding him responsible for the substandard play of the OL. Little things like the inability to get short yardage, protect the franchise player, etc. Can anyone really say our OL has improved at all under Kugler?

Its also not like our WRs didn't take a major backward step this past season. Shouldn't Montgomery be responsible for that?

Maybe Haley holds people responsible and Arians didn't. Could be the culture change they didn't like.

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May 2008

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16,955

Good well thought out take from Neal Coolong

To boil it down, if we really want to get technical, Montgomery's receiving group did not perform well top to bottom this season. It's understandable if the team wanted to make a change to a coach who better fit the direction they felt the position needed to go. It happens all the time.

I've written about the idea of bringing in a coach who's more aligned with running strategy, which is a theory that would go in concert with the idea of running in more of a zone scheme this upcoming year. Training the technique of blocking within a zone scheme is not the simplest thing to do, and they very well just could have felt Montgomery wasn't the best guy who could do that for them.

But perhaps Montgomery really didn't want to coach that strategy, and talked to his old boss, who asked him to come back because he liked the way he coached. Perhaps the Steelers, Mike Tomlin and Todd Haley are not sitting around, twisting mustaches and plotting ways to get rid of their coaches in the most passive-aggressive way possible.

I know that's hard for some to accept, and the idea of it even being a jointly agreed upon situation is possible too. Maybe they're up front and honest with each other, and Montgomery approached Haley and Tomlin, as a man, and said, I've got this opportunity, they're going to pay me this and give me this title, I'd like to stay if you can give me the same thing. They tell him they aren't interested in doing that, shake his hand, wish him the best of luck, and they'll be in touch about prospects soon enough.

The shelf life of a position coach in one job isn't very long, especially when they're young. As long as we're hatching conspiracy theories of people getting "forced out" of their jobs instead of just being fired, maybe we shouldn't downplay their ability to progress their careers in a positive way.